How Armenia uses Sarsang water reservoir as means for environmental terror Joint statement by Azerbaijani government

Several Azerbaijani governmental bodies have issued a joint statement regarding the dire environmental condition of the Sarsang water reservoir as a result of deliberate actions taken by the Armenian Republic amounting to environmental terror.

According to APA, Azerbaijan's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Water Agency recalled in their statement, that the Sarsang reservoir, which was set up in 1976 on the Terchay River and falls currently under the zone of temporary deployment of the Russian peacekeeping contingent. Over more than the past 30 years, Armenia and its forces have been utilizing it as a means of environmental and socio-economic terrorism. The reservoir is currently in a state of emergency and poses a serious threat to human settlements, farms and infrastructures located towards the lower part of the reservoir.

Armenia’s actions have been recognized to be environmental aggression according to Resolution 2085, adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (January 26, 2016) which are aimed at creating humanitarian and environmental problems for the citizens of Azerbaijan.

The statement particularly emphasizes on the fact, that the mismanagement of the Sarsang reservoir, located in the areas where the Russian troops have temporarily been deployed, could lead to a major catastrophe, numerous human casualties and a new humanitarian crisis. The European Assembly called upon the Armenian authorities to stop using water as an instrument of political influence or pressure. It has been documented that the Sarsang reservoir, containing a volume of 560 million m³, continues to cause serious damage to the ecosystem of the region, damage to the environment as well as human health, leading to socio-economic problems.

Thus, the disregard for environmental, including climatic, factors in reservoir management leads to lower water levels and further exacerbates environmental risks. This has a negative impact on the fauna and flora, causing the destruction of vegetation, depletion of fish resources, loss of natural habitats of birds, drought in surrounding forests, increased erosion, desertification and disruption of the ecosystem as a whole.

Besides the environmental aggression, Armenia and its patron forces have and are continuing to cause significant damage to the economy of Azerbaijan, preventing the supply of water from the reservoir to the territories of Tartar, Aghdam, Barda, Goranboy, Yevlakh and Aghjabadi districts which possess great agricultural potential and fertile land resources that need irrigation. Due to the lack of water caused by the use of the Sarsang reservoir not for its intended purpose, 100,000 hectares of cultivated areas in these areas cannot be involved in active agricultural production. At the same time, the intensive use of groundwater to meet the needs of the population for drinking water and partial irrigation has led to the imbalance of natural resources.

"We call on Armenia to refrain from actions that violate the fundamental human right to access safe and clean water, which is one of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, and that leads to the degradation of the region’s ecosystem and the destruction of its fauna and flora", the statement reads.